Jen Gerson's Western Front: Alberta turns teacher talks into a lesson on ineptitude

Alberta turns teacher talks into a lesson on ineptitude

Alberta’s negotiations with its teachers should have been straightforward. They weren’t. The premier’s 11th-hour deal with the teachers’ union should have been a coup. Then it backfired. The Calgary Board of Education should have been able to demonstrate enough common sense to, metaphorically speaking, walk in a straight line and chew gum. It can’t.

There are words to describe what the provinces’ education file has become of late. None of them are complimentary.

Oh, where to begin?

Alberta boasts 62 school boards, which have long been more-or-less successful negotiating deals with the province’s teachers at the local level. That was until 2007, when the province chose to hash out one giant province-wide contract. Educators scored a jelly doughnut of a deal that stuffed their pension fund and granted raises that placed the teachers among the best-paid in Canada.

“I can’t believe anyone would be that stupid.”

Well, oil prices were still high.

The only downside to the plan was that when it expired — as it did last August — all of the contracts expired at the same time, raising the prospect of a province-wide teachers’ strike.

Understandably, boards, teachers and the government were keen to avoid that outcome, leading to tripartite talks between the parties last year. Which promptly broke down. Despite the fact the teachers were willing to settle for 0% pay increases and just wanted assurances on workload issues. This the education minister would not agree to, the teachers walked, and the negotiations fell from the province’s control and back to the local board level.

Then things got weird.

Using the teachers’ registrar certification contact list, Education Minister Jeff Johnson sent an e-mail to 30,000 teachers — some of them to personal accounts — urging them to contact him and spelling out his own thoughts on education. The controversial move is being investigated by the privacy commissioner.

Amid lamentation about the province’s lack of a formal seat at the negotiation table — which it had before it failed to reach a deal — Premier Alison Redford’s office called the Alberta Teachers’ Association to strike up a last-minute contract agreement. In it, teachers agreed to a three-year wage freeze, a one-time lump sum payment, and assurances about work hours and bargaining rights.

Surrounded by flower-bearing children in the entirely too modern library of a Northeast Calgary elementary school, Ms. Redford and Mr. Johnson announced the new deal. And all should be peaceful in Education Land.

Calgary’s board feared the deal would give “individual teachers exclusive control over their professional learning.”

It should have been a much-needed triumph for Ms. Redford’s government, except there’s one group who was missing from the joy. The province and the teachers’ association failed to consider what the actual school boards might think about this deal. They weren’t entirely happy — both Edmonton and Calgary’s public boards have rejected the deal, leaving the whole mess God knows where.

Among the Calgary board’s fears is concern the deal would give “individual teachers exclusive control over their professional learning,” and denigrate the “benefit from the support of visionary leaders who see the future of education.” The board also cited financial issues.